Up All Night
by lolitarun
Summary: Post-"Big Brother." Blaine gets sick and Cooper's the only one there to help him.


_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. I don't own much of anything, actually. This is just for my amusement, and I am not being compensated in any way for writing this (other than the joy I get from entertaining others, of course).

**A/n: So I started writing this one-shot immediately after "Big Brother" and I've been working on it on and off since then. I put it down for a while, but I've decided to finish it off and post it, because it's just taking up space on my hard drive otherwise. Basically this is my attempt at showing a somewhat more complicated relationship between Blaine and Cooper.**

Cooper wasn't really sure exactly when he'd become the person who was in charge of taking Blaine to the emergency room. It wasn't all that surprising, really. Starting when Blaine was eight – right around the time Cooper had gotten his driver's license – it had seemed as though their parents just sort of disappeared from their lives. Not that they had really been around all that much to begin with; Cooper had always joked that their parents should have been gold medalists in absentee parenting, always dropping Cooper and Blaine on relatives or friends because parenting just wasn't convenient for them.

It had been a 17 year old Cooper rushing his nine year old brother to the emergency room once a week before the boy's inflamed appendix had finally been removed due to infection. Cooper that had picked Blaine up off the soccer field and driven him for x-rays and stitches after he'd been kicked in the head at twelve years old. Cooper that had stayed up all night with Blaine when he had the flu a year later, fighting to keep the boy's fever down so that he wouldn't have to make yet another trip to the ER with his baby brother. Cooper that had been the first to make it to the hospital after the Sadie Hawkins dance, to see his younger brother's battered body looking so small and frail in the hospital bed. It had only been the threat of losing his one acting job that had prevented Cooper from rushing home after the slushy incident to check on his little brother.

Cooper was just glad that this time, he was home. Because given what he'd seen from their parents in the week he'd been back in Ohio, he was pretty sure that Blaine wouldn't have had anyone to take care of him.

"Coop…" Cooper looked up from his book, raising an eyebrow as he saw how pale his little brother looked.

"Squirt… what's wrong?"

"Coop, it hurts…" Cooper rushed over to the younger boy, putting a hand against his forehead and noting the fact that he was burning up. Blaine's shirt was soaked through with sweat. "I keep wanting to be sick, but there's nothing left… and it _hurts_ so much." Cooper just nodded, slowly leading the younger boy to the stairs and up towards his bedroom.

"Okay… let's get you upstairs in bed with the bucket. And some water, you need plenty of water," Cooper replied. He didn't like the way Blaine needed to lean so heavily against him to get back up the stairs – nor did he like the fact that he'd somehow missed the fact that Blaine had been upstairs getting sick for God only knew how long. "When did this start?"

"After school… I thought I'd feel better if I lay down for a little while, but it just got worse. And then I started getting sick and I couldn't stop..." Cooper could tell that Blaine was fighting the urge to get sick again by the way he stopped talking rather suddenly, his already unbelievably pale face getting even paler.

"Okay… bathroom first, _then_ straight to bed," Cooper replied, pulling his little brother into the hall bathroom as quickly as possible. He watched as Blaine leaned over the toilet, trying and failing to bring up anything for a few moments until his stomach finally settled and the younger boy let his head rest over the side. "Come on… we need to get you to bed."

Cooper started to help his brother to his feet, but the boy shook his head. "I can't…" Blaine didn't seem able to stand up, so Cooper quickly scooped his little brother up and carried him down the hallway and into his bedroom, sitting him down at the desk and starting to dig through Blaine's drawers to find him some pajamas. "Coop…"

"We need to get you out of those wet clothes…"

"Coop, I'm gonna be sick again…" Cooper ran back to the bathroom, grabbing the trash can and positioning it under Blaine's mouth just in case there was anything to come up, even though he knew there probably wasn't anything left. He did his best to ignore the sound of his little brother's body trying to get rid of whatever it was that was making him feel so awful – Cooper had never been good at dealing with that particular part of being sick. Instead he focused on finding pajamas and clean underwear for his little brother, and then rubbing Blaine's back until his stomach calmed down enough so that Cooper could help him change clothes.

"I'm sorry…" Cooper looked down at his little brother as he helped Blaine strip out of his soaked undershirt.

"What are you sorry for?"

"For making you take care of me again… it's not your job…" Blaine began. Cooper could tell by the way his brother's eyes were half-closed that he wasn't completely coherent at that moment.

"I beg to differ on that fact… Mom and Dad sort of made it my job when they quit bothering to care," Cooper replied. It took him a lot longer than he thought it would to get Blaine changed into clean clothes and into bed, but Cooper was thankful that Blaine closed his eyes almost immediately. "Get some rest… I'm going to bring you some water and see if I can find anything to settle your stomach."

"Coop?" Cooper turned around as he heard Blaine call his name again. "Can you call Kurt and let him know I'm not going to be at school tomorrow? I don't think I can get out of bed…" Cooper smiled, taking his brother's phone from the nightstand.

"I'll let him know. Get some rest, Squirt." Finding Kurt's number was easy enough, but before Cooper could even hit the button to call the boy, the phone in his hand rang. Cooper answered quickly. "Hey Kurt… it's Cooper, I was just about to call you…"

"_Cooper… Blaine's sick, isn't he?_"

"Yeah… how did you know?"

"_Food poisoning… Blaine and Finn both ate the fish sticks at lunch today, and according to Carole there are about half a dozen other students from McKinley that have been in and out of the emergency room today. All from food poisoning at lunch,_" Kurt explained. "_Keep an eye on him, okay? Carole said that if you can keep him hydrated, he'll be okay without having to go to the ER… there's not really anything they could do for him other than give him IV fluids._"

"Thanks, Kurt… I'm going to keep him home tomorrow, no matter what. I don't think he's going to be strong enough to get up, he's been throwing up for a couple of hours now," Cooper replied.

"_It's probably better that way… I know Carole's keeping Finn home, too. I'll get his homework assignments, too._"

"Thanks. I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Cooper hung up the phone, hurrying around the kitchen and grabbing a glass of water and some toast for his brother. It wasn't until after he'd delivered those items that Cooper raided his parents' medicine cabinet, searching out the bottle of Phenergan leftover from his wisdom teeth surgery a few years earlier. He remembered the nausea all too well, and he knew that the pills would help Blaine get some rest. Cooper was grateful when he found the little orange bottle, with half a dozen round, white pills still inside. More than enough to get Blaine through an episode of food poisoning.

"C'mon, Squirt… sit up for a minute and take this," Cooper said, sitting down on the side of Blaine's bed with one of the white pills and the glass of water.

"It won't stay down…" Blaine muttered.

"You don't know until you try… this is going to help with the nausea." Cooper gently pulled his brother to a sitting position, letting Blaine lean against him as he put the white pill in Blaine's mouth and handing him the water to take a sip to wash the pill down. "You should try to eat something, too. I brought toast…"

"No, Coop… just sleep." Cooper just nodded, sighing and letting Blaine lay back down. Cooper put the glass down within Blaine's reach, before rubbing the boy's back gently.

"Get some rest, then. The trash can's by the bed, and I'll come check on you in a couple of hours." Cooper started to get up and walk away, until he felt Blaine's abnormally strong grip on his wrist – a reminder of the old days, when Blaine had refused to let the doctors ever usher Cooper out of the room when he was sick.

"Stay. Please." Cooper smiled, kicking off his shoes and settling in next to his baby brother. Even though their relationship had been tense over the past few years – and especially over the past few days – Cooper would do just about anything for Blaine. He just wasn't always the best at _showing_ his brother that. But he settled in quickly, trying not to disturb Blaine any more than was absolutely necessary. After all, the only way he would get better would be if he got plenty of rest and took care of himself.

Cooper didn't really realize that he'd fallen asleep until he felt Blaine practically throwing himself off the bed to get to the trash can before his stomach tried to empty itself yet again. Cooper moved quickly, rubbing the boy's back and trying to ignore exactly what was happening even though he could tell that nothing was coming up. Blaine still didn't have anything in his stomach to bring up. The alarm clock next to Blaine's bed told Cooper that it had been about six hours since Blaine had admitted he wasn't feeling well – long enough that he could have more of the meds.

"You okay?" Cooper asked once Blaine's stomach had settled down. He watched as Blaine curled up on the carpet, whimpering in response. "I'll take that as a no… I'm going to pick you up and put you back in bed now."

"No…" Cooper shook his head, sighing.

"You can't stay on the floor, Blaine… it's too cold, you're going to make yourself feel even worse." Cooper scooped his brother up, tucking him back into the bed and pressing his hand against the boy's head. "God… you're still burning up…"

"So cold…" Blaine replied. Cooper sighed, grabbing the pill bottle and shaking out another little white tablet before he sat Blaine up and grabbed the glass of water again.

"Come on… let's get this in your system again so that you won't feel so bad."

"No…"

"Blaine, you have to drink some water and you need to take the pill so that you won't feel so bad…"

"Please… just let me sleep…"

"Blaine, if you don't drink the water, I'm going to have to take you to the ER again…" Cooper sighed when Blaine didn't respond; his brother was clearly asleep again. "God, Blaine… I don't want to do that to you…"

Cooper walked out to the bathroom again, searching through the drawers for the thermometer that would go in his brother's ear. The last thing Cooper wanted to do was make Blaine try to keep anything in his mouth for any length of time, because he was sort of afraid that Blaine would get sick again. It also helped that the in-ear version only took about 10 seconds to get a reading, which Cooper was especially thankful for when he saw the number – 104.2.

"Shit…" Cooper muttered, looking down at his little brother with concern. The boy seemed oblivious as he slept, and Cooper bit down on his bottom lip trying to decide what to do.

The phone was ringing before Cooper even consciously knew that he was dialing Kurt's number on Blaine's cell.

"_Hello…?_"

"Kurt… I'm sorry for waking you up, but I'm worried. Blaine's running a really high fever. You said your step-mom's a nurse, right? Can I talk to her?"

"_She's working the night shift in the ER tonight… just take him in, okay? If his fever's high enough that you're worried, then you should take him in._" Cooper nodded as he heard Kurt's advice. "_How is he otherwise?_"

"He hasn't been able to keep anything down without Phenergan. And now he's refusing to drink any water to take it, because he doesn't want to throw up again."

"_Cooper, you need to take him to the hospital right now. I'm going to come meet you two down there…_"

"No, no… I can handle this. I've been doing this for years. You should get some sleep. I'll talk to you in the morning, let you know what's going on."

"_You've been doing what for years?_" Cooper sighed.

"Taking care of Blaine… before I left for Hollywood. Appendicitis, the flu, concussions, getting beaten up – our parents didn't really pay attention to any of it, so I was the one that always had to take Blaine to the emergency room when he was in bad shape. Since he was eight, right after I got my driver's license. They only came when he had appendicitis because I wasn't allowed to sign the permission forms for him to have surgery."

"_God… I knew they were screwed up, but I didn't realize it was that bad…_"

"Look… I'll have to call you later, Kurt. I really need to take care of Blaine…"

"_Right, right… just, keep me updated, okay?_"

"Will do."

Cooper shoved Blaine's phone into his pocket before he walked back over to the bed, scooping up his little brother and wrapping a blanket around Blaine as best he could.

"Wha-…?"

"We're going to the emergency room, Blaine…"

"No…"

"Yes. You're running a high fever, and you aren't going to take anything to drink, so I _have_ to take you in so that you don't get too dehydrated," Cooper replied as he started to make his way slowly down the stairs. He wasn't sure where the hell his parents were – not that it would really matter, since they would just leave everything up to him anyway. But still, Cooper wished that for his brother's sake they would care, just this once.

The ride to the emergency room went fairly quickly; Cooper was a bit of a speed demon, and he was just grateful that there weren't any cops patrolling in the area, because he needed to get his brother to a doctor as quickly as possible.

"Oh God… Blaine's got it, too?" Cooper smiled at the brunette woman that spoke to him almost as soon as he walked into the ER with his brother in his arms.

"You must be Carole… I'm Cooper, Blaine's older brother. He's… he's pretty sick." Cooper watched as the woman nodded and started leading them through a set of double doors and behind a curtain where another nurse was checking on a girl who appeared to be about Blaine's age.

"Nancy, we have another McKinley student… he's in bad shape, probably the worst we've seen tonight." Carole's comment had Cooper even more worried as she motioned towards the empty bed. "Cooper, put him down here. I'll get an IV started while we wait for the doctor to come look at him."

"Thank you…" Cooper replied with a slight smile. He couldn't help worrying, even as Carole worked on the boy.

"He'll be okay, Cooper… we're going to take good care of him," Carole replied. Cooper just nodded, letting her work and mostly just trying to stay out of the way as much as possible.

"His fever… I'm worried about it," Cooper commented once the IV was in place. "He's always run high fevers… higher than normal for the situation. But it's bordering on dangerous and I just want to be sure that he'll be okay." Cooper watched as the woman checked with a thermometer similar to the one Cooper had used earlier.

_104.8_

"I'm going to go find a doctor to come take a look at him. Then we can get his fever down and start treating the symptoms so that he'll start to feel better." Cooper nodded, waiting for someone to come and tell him something about his brother's condition.

"He'll be okay… I know you're worried, but this is the best place you could have brought him right now. We'll make him feel better." Cooper smiled at Carole as the woman walked back into the room, putting a hand on Cooper's shoulder for a moment before she went back to working on his younger brother. Cooper knew she was right, of course – it was just difficult for him to see his baby brother feeling so miserable and not really being able to do anything about it. Before Cooper had left for California, he had been the one that had always been there to take care of Blaine, and he'd gotten used to being a source of comfort for his younger brother. Even after two years in California, and despite the fact that his brother was almost an adult, Cooper still wished he could be that source of comfort.

Cooper wasn't sure when he'd fallen asleep, exactly. He knew that it was at some point after the doctor had decided to admit Blaine for the night and moved him upstairs. And it was definitely after Cooper had called their parents to inform them that Blaine was in the hospital from food poisoning – not that they'd really seemed all that concerned about it, since Cooper was with him and for some reason they trusted him to make medical decisions for his younger brother.

All Cooper really knew as he was waking up was that Blaine was awake, too. And while the younger boy certainly didn't look very well – his dark curls were pretty much plastered to his forehead with sweat and his skin was eerily pale – he did at least look somewhat better than he had the night before.

"Hey…" Cooper began, smiling at his brother.

"You stayed all night?"

"Don't I always?" Cooper watched as his brother shrugged, closing his eyes again.

"I sort of figured you'd have something better to do…" Cooper had to admit, he felt guilty that his younger brother had actually believed there would be something in his life more important than Blaine's health.

"Hey," Cooper began, leaning forward so that he could rest his elbows on the side of his brother's bed. "You're more important than any plans I might have, okay? I'll look out for you…"

"You shouldn't have to… you're just my older brother…" Cooper raised an eyebrow.

"That's exactly why I _should_ worry about you. Because you know Mom and Dad aren't going to be around unless they have to be. They never have been before, so why should they start now?"

"Because it's supposed to be their job, not yours…" Cooper just shrugged.

"It doesn't matter, okay? They aren't here, and I don't want you to be alone through something like this… I'm sure you're miserable enough without being left to take care of yourself. I'd rather be here with you than pretty much anywhere else," Cooper replied. "Do you need anything? They'll probably bring you some kind of breakfast soon, but I could get you something now, or something to drink…"

"Could you just get me some more water? I've been trying to drink it every time I've woken up, but it's not cold any more…" Cooper nodded, smiling at his brother.

"Sure." Cooper was already on his way out the door with the small pitcher to get some ice when he heard Blaine calling to him.

"Hey, Coop?"

"Yeah, Squirt?"

"Thanks." Cooper smiled.

"No problem."

"But stop calling me Squirt…" Cooper laughed.

"Yep… you're definitely starting to feel better."


End file.
